CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

Now, I'm not saying that movies should be educational nor even that they should represent the world as it really is. That would be silly. When Elliott rides his bicycle through the sky across the face of the moon with E.T. in the basket, that's a great logo for Amblin Entertainment. It's not a documentary. It is assumed that a moviegoer, once he has his bucket of popcorn and a paper cup of something sticky to spill so that I can hear my feet go "click-click" when I come to the theatre next week, will park his brain under the seat with the chewing gum and just watch the screen. Thinking has always been discouraged at the movies. That's their advantage: you are excused from thinking for a couple of hours. To me, that and the popcorn are worth ten bucks.

The problem arises later when people whose primary source of education has been movies (and that's just about everybody, in America at least) is stopped on the street and asked questions about the world and how things work. They respond incorrectly. Some of these people are policymakers and educators. Why does a Schwartzenneger movie carry more weight than a Schwartzenegger technology initiative? Because the first has been observed, the second only imagined.

Should theatre be scientifically correct? Hell, no, but at the very least, the audience should be able to tell the difference between special effects and reality after the show is over. Here's a brilliant website that's not only fun to read but satisfying to fans of NUMB3RS as well.

posted by C. J. # 11:48 PM